The Last Quarter’s Spell 10/24/2021

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

This time of year is mystical to me. That is the best word that I can think of to describe it. And yes, before you even say anything (assuming you discuss my blog with anyone or if you, like myself, talk to yourself when you read things) I am indeed about to write about autumn again. However, it isn’t JUST autumn that I am going to be talking about. Yes, it will be wholeheartedly included with all the enamored fervor that I can muster.  Lately I have seen countless examples of rather spellbinding instances that for whatever reason seem so amplified this time of year.  It actually goes on from now till year’s end. Once we hit autumn and move forward there is something in the air that is just, different.  Let me share with you my thoughts and see if you don’t agree.  I can’t help but think that it cannot be just me who feels this way.

From this time of year on come all these excessively festive holidays. Yes, I know that there are other holidays throughout the year which we celebrate but you must admit it is these special days at the end of the year that merit I daresay the most investment from us.  Sure on Easter you might get the occasional egg or rabbit in a yard here and there. Maybe you get a heart strewn wreath on a door come February or a shamrock in March. But these last 3 months on the calendar just seem to cause us to pull out all the stops.  You see homes that are transformed in decoration.  The simple house down the street becomes a haunted mansion at which you can’t decide if you should gawk in disconcerted fascination or just walk more quickly to get past. If nothing else, many a front porch, stoop and walkway is aglow with a variety of colorful gourds wearing all sorts of carving, paint or simple natural beauty.  As the season progresses goblins melt into mums of warm shades and tall stalks of spent corn leaning casually against bales of hay.  And once Thanksgiving is past, and we all know some don’t even wait that long, the variety and magnitude of decorations for Christmas boggle the mind. We go to so much effort during these times to be celebratory.  The holidays themselves lend to all sorts of enchanting lore as well which only adds to things.  But by no means think that human appointed décor is the only thing of which I speak.  To me, nature lends to the magic all the more.

First off, it is a Hunter’s moon.  Just the name alone conjures images of a giant glowing golden orb wrapped with dark and mysterious clouds.  Just the other night as I returned home in the evening the moon sat bright and fat on one side of the sky while on the other the darkness was thicker and flickers of sinister lightning told of a coming storm. In certain areas with no explicable reason, a mist hovered over the ground making the most mundane field or roadside become an enchanted kingdom, alive with all sorts of supernatural whatnots just waiting to be discovered.  I do not claim that a summer or spring evening cannot be beautiful but this, this FEELS differently.  There is a quality to things that give them characteristics that can only be described as otherworldly.  Yes, I know Halloween is rather focused on such traits but it isn’t just that holiday in particular.  For instance, in autumn there is the prevalence of having bonfires. I would like to disclaimer that I am not in fact a pyromaniac but I would challenge most anyone to say that on a dark cool night, to be gathered around a roaring blaze is not downright mystifying.  I don’t know what it is.  While such a thing can occur at any time of year, these days it merits something more within me; something beyond.

On to Christmas time, and it isn’t just me that thinks it utterly magical. There are Appalachian folktales that tell of all the animals gaining the ability to talk during the night of Christmas and if that isn’t pure enchantment I don’t know what is.  We suddenly embrace the use of candlelight so much more which, like its larger cousin the bonfire, creates a more captivating atmosphere in the best possible way.  We take the very simple idea of bringing a tree into our household and suddenly what was a very average dwelling becomes a home to a place where all manner of magical occurrences are possible.  We embrace lights and things that sparkle and yet can even turn strung together popcorn or greenery in a ring hung on a door into things of beauty that invariably invoke wonder to the times.

I have, as I am prone to do, rambled.  But do you feel this?   Do you sense it in the cool breezes and the rustling of leaves beginning to change?  Do you notice it in those autumn mists and fogs that settle over the landscape making the golds and rusts of old grass and tree become haloed with a marvelous glow?  Then the progression into winter causes a special stillness as the warmth of the colors melt into cool greys and silvers and there is the possibility of magic in each shadow, and the possibility only grows as we embrace all the candles and lanterns to punctuate those deep patches of darkness.  I know for me, this time of year even in my mind has its own soundtrack filled with haunting strings that mingle in something that sounds like a song from centuries ago played on instruments just as ancient.  Perhaps I am overreacting or reading too much into candlelight or a bright full moon.  But then again, maybe I am not the only one and perhaps there really is something mystical and glorious about these last few pages on the calendar. Maybe, though I have yet to witness any forest creature tell me as much, but just maybe there is magic in the air.